The Financial Markets Authority published two companion reports in March 2026 covering access to financial advice in New Zealand. One draws on a nationally representative survey of 1,000 consumers conducted in September 2025. The other reflects 80 interviews and questionnaire responses from across the financial advice sector.
Together these reports establish a detailed baseline on consumer behaviour, barriers to advice and where the sector is falling
short. This is one of the most detailed pictures yet of how New Zealanders understand and use financial advice – including useful insights for insurance brokers.
Consumers don’t understand what brokers do
The consumer research asked respondents what they believed financial advisers could help them with. Only 31% of consumers thought a financial adviser could help them get life insurance. For health insurance, the figure was 25%.
Home and contents insurance and motor vehicle insurance rated so low they barely registered as advice categories in consumers’ minds. Only 8% of respondents had ever received advice on home and contents insurance, and 9% on motor vehicle insurance.
The research reveals a comprehension problem - a substantial portion of the New Zealand public does not know that getting insurance through a broker constitutes regulated financial advice, or that the adviser relationship carries specific obligations around suitability and disclosure. That’s a significant gap for our industry to close.
Consumers prefer a commission model, as long as it’s clearly disclosed
There is much sector debate about whether commission structures undermine the advice relationship and the FMA's expectations around managing conflicts of interest have not changed. However, when respondents were asked how they would prefer to pay for financial advice, 34% chose the commission model – with the potential conflict of interest disclosed.
Commission was the single largest preference category, ahead of fee-based comprehensive advice at 20% and lower-cost limited-scope advice at 18%. The data indicates that when given an honest description of the model, consumers made an informed choice in favour of the accessibility that commission models enable.
For brokers who tend to be defensive about commission, this finding supports a straightforward explanation of how the model works and why many clients choose it.
The real competition is… family
Asked who they had consulted about their financial situation in the past 12 months, 49% of respondents cited a partner or family member. 26% used a general internet search. 23% spoke to friends. Only 16% spoke to a financial adviser, with mortgage brokers counted separately
at 8%.
Informal sources are not just widely used, they’re influential. Around 60% of consumers who relied on family, friends or general online sources said the guidance made a meaningful difference to their financial decisions. Younger consumers, those experiencing financial stress and Māori respondents were all more likely to rely on social media and informal networks.
Demographic differences
Women were less likely to have used a financial adviser in the past year: 24% compared with 33% of men. They were also more likely to cite cost as a barrier (37% versus 24%) and more likely to say they didn’t know where to start (31% versus 21%). Confidence in understanding what a financial adviser does was consistently lower among women across every income and education band in the survey.
The income impact is equally clear. Only 13% of respondents earning under $20,000 annually had used a financial adviser in the past year. That figure rises to 48% for those earning $150,000 and above. Lower-income consumers were significantly more likely to report having received no advice at all across any product category.
The FMA also highlighted limited adviser familiarity with collectively owned assets, the legal structures governing hapū and iwi entities, and approaches to collective decision-making as substantive gaps in current adviser capability.
The baseline is clear
What this research provides is a clearly documented starting point. Consumer understanding of what brokers do is measurably low, signalling that there is much work for our profession to do in building awareness and understanding of the role of brokers.
The FMA has committed to further engagement with the sector on several of these findings. By engaging with the underlying data, IBANZ and the broking community will be better positioned for those conversations.
The reports can be accessed here:
https://www.fma.govt.nz/assets/Reports/Access-to-advice-Consumer-research-findings.pdf
